A comparison of mental retardates and normals on visual figural aftereffects and reversible figures.

Abstract

"A group of institutionalized high-grade mentally retarded adolescent boys was compared with a group of normal boys, equated for chronological age, on two perceptual tasks." The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the groups in how they perceived visual figure aftereffects and rigidity with regard to the perception of a reversible figure-ground stimulus. The results are discussed in terms of theories of perception and similar findings with schizophrenics. 19 refs.